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 India's animation industry generated revenue worth 44.9
billion rupees ($675.7 million) in 2014, a 13 percent increase
from the previous year, according to data from a FICCI-KPMG
report on India's media and entertainment industry.
The industry is expected to double in size to 95.5 billion
rupees within five years, as Hollywood studios tap a large pool
of low-cost, English-speaking animators who are familiar with
Western culture.
So far, animators based in India have created crowd scenes and
props for the Emmy award-winning TV series "Game of Thrones" as
well as more prominent visual effects for films including
Disney's 2014 Angelina Jolie movie "Maleficent" and Dreamworks
Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon", among other Hollywood
hits.
"We are one of those best kept secrets. We do all this amazing
work and no one knows about it," said Biren Ghose, who runs the
Indian subsidiary of U.S. firm Technicolor, which includes the
India-based animation units that worked on "Maleficent".
In a bid to gain more business and build a higher profile, a
unit of Mumbai-listed visual effects firm Prime Focus Ltd last
year bought London-based Double Negative, the studio that this
year won an Oscar for best visual effects for "Interstellar".
Others like Prana Studios have attracted investment from some of
the country's richest men - Reliance Industries' tycoon Mukesh
Ambani and Anand Mahindra of the diversified Mahindra Group.
"Of course cost is a big factor," said Arish Fyzee, Prana's
chief executive and creative director, when asked about the
Indian animation industry's appeal. Both Mahindra and Reliance
declined to comment for this story.
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"But ultimately, animation is about performance and understanding
cultural idioms and idiosyncrasies. The combination is what our
clients find helpful."
India's animation industry is almost as old as its movie industry,
the world's biggest in terms of revenue. In 1956, a local movie
studio invited a Disney animator to train them, and a year later,
India's first animated production "The Banyan Deer" was made.
Over the years, studios have generated their own animated movies,
ranging from 2008's box office flop "Roadside Romeo", a 3-D cartoon
movie jointly produced by Yash Raj films and Disney, to this year's
hit war epic "Bahubali", India's costliest film on record.
Indian demand for local animation is dwarfed by business from
Hollywood, but some studios like Prana say working on their own
movies will elevate the industry's status, and their own profile.
"It's a departure from waiting for work to come from the United
States," said Prana's Fyzee. The firm is creating its own animated
movie "Wish", about wishing wells.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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